Utah Beach

Utah Beach was the codename given to one of five sectors of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of France during World War II. On 6 June 1944, the US Navy and US Coast Guard, supported by warships from the United Kingdom, Canada, and the Netherlands, engaged in a naval bombardment and mine sweeping before US Army troops were sent to assault the beach on landing craft. The US 4th Infantry Division and the US 70th Armor Regiment assaulted the German defenses on the beach as the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions landed behind German lines to assist the landings. The Americans faced two battalions of the German 919th Grenadier Regiment under Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben, and the Americans quickly secured the beach with minimal casualties (losing just 197 men of 21,000 men landed on the beach). However, 700 men were lost in the tank regiment, engineering units, and ships sunk by the Germans, and the airborne suffered 2,499 losses during the Battle of Sainte-Mere-Eglise. The Americans failed in their objective of sealing off the Cotentin Peninsula and capturing Cherbourg, and they had only captured half of the intended area; however, they secured a foothold in Europe so that more troops could arrive.